P40-B Japanese project put on hold, says peza

A Japanese manufacturing firm is putting its P40-billion expansion plan on hold amid uncertainty over tax perks.

Charito Plaza, director general of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), said this on Monday, noting that Murata Philippines had planned to further expand its local operations.

But plans have been shelved until tax incentives are either retained or improved under the divisive Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities “(Trabaho)” bill.

“The P40 billion is for Murata’s expansion of buildings and [its manufacturing] of new products, but they’re [putting it on hold] until they know the fate of TRAIN 2,” she said in a text message.

Formerly called TRAIN 2, the Trabaho bill is the second tax reform package of the Duterte administration.

The bill will lower corporate income taxes in the country, while rationalizing the incentives offered to investors. The latter part is seen to hit Peza and the economic zones.

According to its website, the Philippines hosts Japan-based Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd.’s largest production site in Asia.

Called the Philippine Manufacturing Co. of Murata, Inc. (PMM), it began its operations in Batangas in 2013 with the production of multilayer ceramic capacitors.

Plaza said the company occupied 24 hectares of land with two buildings to manufacture its products. The planned expansion would create 6,000 new jobs.

“They’ll expand to two more [buildings] once incentives remain the same or an attractive [set of] incentives [in TRAIN 2] will be passed,” she added. —ROY STEPHEN C. CANIVEL